Airfare question for 15 day central Europe trip

Here is the information about trains from Lubljana:
https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Ljubljana.htm
If you don't think you have time for the train, you could fly (apparently it would need to be on a separate one-way ticket) to a more convenient airport for your return flight. How are you getting to Prague? I don't see that there are direct flights there from IAD, BWI or Philly.

Hi Steve. Looks like all 3 major US carriers have service to IAD with one connection in Europe. Confused as to why you don't think flying from LJU is practical. Have you checked multi city tickets flying into your 1st city and home from LJU?

You did not mention your flight date but Bob is right that all 3 major US carriers offer one stop codeshare service from Ljubljana to a US airport. Booking is currently open only through mid June, 2026, so if you are looking at dates later next summer that may explain why you are not finding these flights. Wait until 330 days prior to your flight date to check schedules.

One option would be the Go-opti transfer company. They do shuttles to Venice that take between 2-3 hours and they also go to Vienna and Munich. . We used them from the Ljubljana airport to our hotel at the beginning of our tour and they were great. We didn’t realize until we’d already booked our airfare that they were a reasonable option, but other forum posters have used them between Ljubljana and Venice.

You might also consider calling the Rick Steves office or emailing them with this question.

We took this tour and found the connections and available flight itineraries from Ljubljana to be problematic (our home airport usually has an extra connection in the U.S.). So we flew back from Venice, and used the Go Opti shuttle to transfer from our last tour hotel in Lake Bled. I think we flew direct Venice to Philly then a quick connecting flight home. The Go Opti worked well and it was about a three hour drive.

We took this tour two summers ago. It's easy enough to take the city bus from Lake Bled to Ljubljana (approx 1 hour) and from there, a Flix bus (or van) into Venice (approx 2.5 hours). The tour only does a quick stop in Ljubljana, but I found it worth an additional night post-tour. And then you could always stay in Venice an additional night or two!

Thank you for all of the helpful replies. I am using a travel agent for the flights, but was doing some searching today while at work. I did not see the flights from Ljubljana via a connection to the airports in my area -- so thank you! I need to look more carefully.

If no one minds, let me look around a bit in the next few days and I can post any further questions. I appreciate this forum; it's very helpful.

And our tour dates are June 19, 2026 — Fri, July 3, 2026.

We've done this tour, returning from LJU to Boston, as well as returning from LJU the two other times we were in Slovenia. I have always booked with Lufthansa. Assuming the flights listed for the summer of 2026 remain the same throughout the summer, there are a number of choices to return from LJU to IAD offered through Lufthansa, though some are operated by other Star Alliance partners. Some of the flights are one stop and transfer through Munich, Frankfurt, or Zurich depending on the operating airline. Each time we have returned from LJU our guide has offered to, and we excepted, that they would arrange taxi service for us from Lake Bled to the airport.

For what it's worth, flight schedules for next July are not posted yet for most airlines,
( generally 330 days out), and you can expect schedule revisions along the way if you
book very far out in time.

PHL is an AA hub and IAD is a UA hub, so your options will be as good as they can be.

Zagreb is another option to look for flights out of, it's closer than Venice.